User blog:SPARTAN 119/Saeko Busujima (Highschool of the Dead) vs Mai Kawasumi (Kanon)
Saeko Busujima, the schoolgirl turned sadistic, katana-wielding zombie slayer who takes out her sociopathic urges on the living dead VS Mai Kawasumi, the longsword-wielding girl whose "extracurricular activies" consist of battling mysterious "demons" in her school after hours. WHO IS DEADLIEST?! =Combatants= Saeko Busujima Saeko is a third-year in high school and president of Fujimi High School's kendo club. She is extremely skilled with a sword and close combat. Not much is known about her family except that her father had traveled abroad on a self-defense conference before the advent of the Outbreak. It is also mentioned in the manga that the Busujima family has been protecting the throne for ages, therefore all Busujima members are skilled in combat.Saeko is shown to be a kind, caring, strong and very reliable person, which is pointed out by other characters. Saeko often considers the feelings of other members of the group and often ensures their well being. Later on in the series, Saeko reveals her sadistic side while fighting "them", and she explains to Takashi that she was this way before the start of the story.Four years prior to the start of the story, a man had attempted to assault her. Armed with her bokken (wooden sword), she easily disposed of the would-be assailant, breaking several of his bones before the police came. This experience revealed her sadistic tendencies; she enjoyed holding the power to inflict pain on another human being. In addition to her reliance on killing the undead in order to survive, Saeko continually struggles with this part of herself, which causes momentary weaknesses in her otherwise strong demeanor.(from HOTD wiki) Mai Kawasumi Note: Spoilers are marked by black spaces, highlight to reveal text: Mai Kawasumi is a major character in the visual novel and later anime Kanon. Mai was girl from an unspecified city in Japan, who possessed mysterious healing powers. As a child, Mai spent time with her mother, who was hospitalized with an unspecified disease, praying for her recovery and at one point crying on her hand. Mysteriously, Mai's mother recovered, and in so doing, Mai discovered the her tears in particular have mysterious healing powers. During her teenage years, Mai was feared by most of her classmates as mysterious accidents seemed to occur around her, specifically damage to school property. Because of this, Mai has a quiet, shy personality and has few friends, except for her best friend Sayuri Kurata and protagonist Yuichi Aizawa. In truth, Mai is involved in the damage to school property, namely, she spends her nights at the school fighting mysterious formless "demons" in the building, armed with a longsword, though it is not clear where she got a hold of the weapon. Mai always keeps the sword somewhere where she can easily access it, feeling weak without it. These "demon" attacks become more intense when Mai meets Yuichi Aizawa in the school building after hours, and observes her fighting the demons. During the course of the series, Mai is invited to school dance by Yuichi, which results in an attack by at least one "demon", which Mai is forced to fight, resulting in severe damage to the gymnasium. Mai only narrowly escapes expulsion for this, and later Sayuri Kurata is attacked by one of the "demons", with Mai finding her unconcious in a school bathroom. Around the same time, mysterious black marks start appearing on Mai's body, and Mai starts to feel pain after killing a "demon". Mai fights a final climactic battle with the "demons", in which Yuichi attempts to aid her armed with a bokken, but ends up only being attacked by a "demon". Mai successfully defeats a group of demons, but the "black marks" keep growing on her body. Mai and Yuichi are then confronted by another demon, and Yuichi finally realizes it is in fact a "dark side" to her powers. The reason Mai feels pain after slaying a demon is because she is literally killing part of herself. At this point, Mai attempts to commit suicide by stabbing herself with her sword. Mai is saved, however, by a manifestation of healing powers, which save her life. At this point Yuichi remembers that he had met Mai before during their childhood ten years earlier. Yuichi and Mai used to play in an empty lot, until the high school Mai and Yuichi would attend was constructed on the site of the field. Mai made up story of demons, actually construction machinery, destroying the field, and phoned Yuichi to come help "battle the demons", but Yuichi replied that he was moving that day, and Mai never saw him again until they met ten years later. Because this, which Mai viewed as something of a destruction of her childhood memories, the "demons" manifested in her school years later. Mai is shown to be a lover of nature and animals, and wishes to be a veterinarian. =Weapons= Katana (Saeko) The Katana is a curved, single edged sword originating from Japan, and are one of the nation's most iconic weapons. Originally used by the Samurai of Feudal Japan, the weapon has also come to be commonly known as a "Samurai Sword". The length of the blade is often somewhere between 60 to 73 centimeters in length. The metal of the blade is created from Tamahagane, a hard, high carbon steel for the cutting edge and sides, and the tough, low carbon steel for the core and back, giving the blade a hard edge, while allowing it to absorb blows without shattering. The gentle curvature of the blade adds to the weapons cutting power by focusing the force of the blow on a smaller area. This curve is achieved during quenching: the sword maker coats the blade with several layers of a wet clay slurry, putting a much thinner layer on the front of the blade. When the blade is thrust in water, the front of the blade cools more quickly and hardens, while the slower cooling in the back of the blade reduces lattice strain on the spine, causing the blade to curve backwards. The Katana was not designed at all for penetrating armor. It was designed to make quick and decisive slashes at weak points in armor. Specifically the throat. This required extreme speed and accuacy to wield. And that required an extreme amount of training and discipline to wield. It is generally considered to be one of the greatest sword designs ever. Longsword (Mai) The term "longsword" refers to a longer European-style sword than the arming sword, having the same straight, double-edged blade and cruciform shape of the arming sword, but having a length of up to about one and a half meters, designed more for thrusting, but still capable of cutting. The weapon could be used in either one or two handed, using two hands for powerful slashing attacks, and one hand for faster thrusts and cuts. The sword was used from the mid 1300s to the mid 1500s. =Combat Style/Technique= Saeko Busujima Saeko Busujima's sword technique seems to be based on traditional Japanese sword fighting, including kendo and kenjutsu. Saeko seems to favor mostly slashing attacks, notably a kendo-style downward strike aimed at the top of the head, as well as various diagonal slashing attacks and horizontal strikes to the neck, easily capable of decapitation. Saeko has also been seen to at times go for low leg strikes to knock an opponent off their feet. She will also use thrusting attacks, but mostly to finish off downed enemies. Saeko is also capable of drawing her sword and performing a lethal slashing attack in one fluid motion. Saeko is supremely agile, proving herself capable of sidestepping an attacking zombie and then striking the back of the head in a spinning motion, and even evading attacks with flips, rolls, and other maneuvers. Saeko also combines her sword techniques with karate-style kicking attacks, including a jump kick that allows her to position herself on top of an enemy for a finishing blow, as well as judo-style throws, using the enemies momentum against the to flip them over her head. Saeko has performed a few different "special techniques" in her time fighting the zombie apocalypse, including a spinning jump attack propelled by the momentum from a motorcycle driven by Takashi Komuro, capable of mowing down a group of zombies, as well as a jumping attack from an pedestrian overpass and, perhaps most impressively, a "front-flip slash", in which she jumps and performs multiple front flips while holding her sword, resulting in a circular vertical slashing motion. Mai Kawasumi Mai Kawasumi takes full advantage of the fact that her longsword can be used with both a one and two-handed grip. In general, her sword attacks consist of powerful, two-handed slashes, and quick, one-handed slashes and thrust. Mai backs up her sword attacks with practically superhuman agility, being able run very quickly and jumping up to about six feet in the air and push off walls for additional momentum, allowing her to jump about twenty feet horizontal distance down a corridor. Due to her great agility, combined with the fact that her adversaries are amorphous "demons" ranging from about seven to (in one case) thirty feet tall, Mai tends to favor jumping attacks, both slashes and downward thrusts. In one case, Mai uses the higher plain of a table to reach a jump height of about ten to twelve feet, and then attack with a downward thrust. In another instance, she attacks a 30-foot tall "demon" by jumping from a second or third story window and attacking with a "front-flip slash" similar to one used by Saeko, slicing the "demon" clean in half. Mai also seems to have near-superhuman strength, in one instance cutting through road signs, a storage tank, a bicycle, and even breaking a small, roughly waist-high cinder block wall with her sword. =X-Factors and Statistics= Explanations As far as physical size is concerned, Saeko is taller and has a greater mass, given the physique of both girls, this mass is likely all muscle, meaning that Saeko might be slightly stronger, and definitely more difficult to knock off her feet. As for the measurements, those mean... absolutely nothing for the purposes of this match, I simply placed them in for "teh lolz" after noticing that both girls had official measurements (though, if you average them out, you will notice that Mai is a slightly wider target... by all of 2.6 centimeters, so yeah, meaningless). Now that were through with that aside, Mai takes a slight edge in agility due to her six-foot jumping and wall jumping abilities. As for brutality and killer instinct, Saeko's violent, sadistic personality give her a definite edge, as, while Mai has never attacked an actual human (not counting taking a thrust at another girl when she surprised her, and threatening to stab Yuichi in the neck if the player chooses to try to grope her breasts in the visual novel), Saeko has beaten a man who attacked her nearly to death and killed countless zombies, which while not fully human as far as sentience, still bleed etc, and is known to take great pleasure in causing others pain and injury. Mai takes intelligence as well, as, assuming she has any change of actually achieving her ambitions of becoming veterinarian, she must have above average intelligence. Mai's also possesses healing powers that allow her limited regenerative abilities, however they do not work on every injury Mai sustains, it has saved her life when she attempted suicide by falling on her own sword. However, she will still be disabled for some time by the wound, and for the purposes of this match, will not save her from things like decapitation or destruction of the brain. Saeko takes a slight edge in swordsmanship, due to her related edge in training, having taken martial arts classes, while Mai simply practices with a bokken, at one point accompanied by Yuichi and Sayuri. While Mai's physical strength is shown more prominently, when she goes berserk and destroys a bunch of objects, most of them, with the possible exception of the cinder block wall and the bicycle could possibly be destroyed by a trained swordsman (depending on the weight of the blade). Also, one must take into account the "stylization" present in anime, which no doubt embellished Mai's destructive capacity. Finally, Mai takes mental health, as while she is troubled by the appearances of "demons" in her school, especially after they start attacking Yuichi and Sayuri, Mai does not have near the mental issues that Saeko has, with her sociopathic personality, which she sometimes struggles to control. =Battle= Mai Kawasumi patrolled the area outside her school, longsword in hand, stained with the blood of countless zombies. Her high school had become a familiar battle ground for Mai, first the against the "demons" and then against the hordes of mindless killing machines created by a viral outbreak. Now, Mai had only one objective: find her friend, Sayuri Kurata. Mai Kawasumi sliced through a group of several more zombies, when suddenly, her blade met something with a clanging sound- Mai's longsword collided with a katana wielded by Saeko Busujima, who had been slashing through the same undead horde. Neither girl had noticed the other. Saeko was now in a psychotic bloodlust, and attempted a second slash at Mai, aiming downward at her head, which Mai blocked with her sword. "I'm not one of them!", Mai said, surprisingly calmly for someone who had just been attacked. However, Saeko's attack continued. In her bloodlust, she could not tell that Mai was an ally. Realizing the girl was still attacking her, Mai blocked Saeko's second attack, and counterattacked, making a horizontal slash at Saeko, which Saeko evaded by jumping backwards. Mai pushed forward her offensive, making a rapid thrusting attack, which Saeko dodged by sidestepping in spinning motion, getting behind Mai and aiming a slash at her neck that would have decapitated her were it not for Mai ducking the blow while turning on the spot, slashing at Saeko's legs. Saeko lowered her katana in time to block Mai's low strike, but Mai managed to keep her sword in place as got back to her feet. Mai then jumped backwards, onto a ledge about four feet tall. Using the higher plane and her almost superhuman agility, Mai jumped several feet into the air, and came down in a jumping slash. Saeko prepared to block, holding her sword with one hand on the hand and one on the flat side of the blade, the flat of the sword facing towards Mai. Mai's sword impacted in a shower of sparks as steel ground against steel. Saeko retaliated with several wild slashes, with Mai dodged by jumping backwards. Mai then ran forwards and pushed off the wall of the school, launching herself over Saeko's head and landing on her feet several meters from Saeko. Mai then turned around and charged at Saeko, blade raised. Saeko turned around as she heard Mai's footfalls on the concrete sidewalk. As Mai prepared to slash, Saeko grabbed her by the wrist and threw her over her head judo-style, using Mai's own momentum against her. Mai felt pain all through her body as she landed on her back on the hard concrete. The good news was at the fall had done any permanent damage. The bad new was that Saeko was now standing over her, her katana readied for a downward thrust into Mai's head. Mai rolled out of the way as Saeko prepared to strike, but that proved be unnecessary. From behind her, someone grabbed her by the waist, with one hand, and held back her sword hand with the other. "Saeko-san!", a boy about Saeko's age said as he knocked the sword out of Saeko's hand, as he turned her to face him. "Snap out of it!", the boy said, gave Saeko a sharp slap across the face. Saeko moved her hand up to pinkish mark where the boy had struck her. "Takashi....", Saeko said.... "I knew it... I snapped... I'm too dangerous to you... I can't be allowed to stay with you" As she spoke, Saeko picked up her katana and held it towards her stomach, as though about to commit seppeku. "SAEKO, NO!" Takashi said. It happened in a flash of steel. Saeko's sword flew out of her hand. Mai Kawasumi stood next to Saeko, holding her longsword, having blocked Saeko's suicide attempt. "I was once troubled as you were, thought suicide was the only way out...", Mai said in her quiet, almost monotone voice, "But there is nothing to be gained by throwing your life away. If you you do, then your demons have won." "Arigato", Saeko said simply, taking Mai's hand and getting back on her feet, "I'm sorry for the way I acted, I got... carried away..." "It's OK... We all have our own demons we must battle... But no one has to face them alone." After a long pause, Mai asked, "Your name, it was Saeko, right" "Hai", Saeko replied, "Saeko Busujima". "Mai Kawasumi", Mai responded. Shortly afterwards, the boy introduced himself as "Takashi Komuro". The second after Takashi introduced himself, several gunshots rang out. Behind them, Saeko, Mai, and Takashi heard three zombies crash to the floor, just feet from them, having approached as they were talking, attracted by the noise of the fight. Several feet from the zombies stood a girl with light brown hair in a the same school uniform, armed with a Glock pistol, with the slide in a back position, noting that she had expended the entire magazine. Mai recognized the girl immediately as her best friend, Sayuri Kurata. "Mai!", the girl said, "Sayuri was so worried". Mai ran to Sayuri and hugged her. As Mai and Sayuri broke apart, Mai said "Nice shooting. Where'd you get the gun?" To be honest, Mai impressed that Sayuri was able to kill those three zombies- Sayuri was very clumsy, the one time she tried practicing using a bokken with Mai, she slipped as she tried to strike. Admitted, she had expended and entire magazine on three zombies. "Sayuri found it off off a dead police officer", Sayuri said simply, "But Sayuri could only find one more clip, she was mostly hiding from them. Sayuri was so scared". Takashi wondered why Sayuri referred to herself in third person, but that would have to wait for another time. A group of about twenty of "them" was making its way over the group of survivors, attracted by the gunshots. "Sayuri-san", Takashi said, "Can you reload that gun?". "Yes", Sayuri replied, somewhat taken aback at being addressed by Takashi, "Sayuri figured it out when she was hiding." "All right, reload and keep the gun ready." Sayuri released the spent magazine and reloaded her weapon. "All right, everyone stay in a group", Takashi said as he picked up an Ithaca 37 shotgun, "And Sayuri, Don't fire unless they get really close, Saeko, Mai, and I will keep them off you. If you have to shoot, go for the headshot. You ready?" Sayuri nodded. Saeko and Mai charged forth into the zombie horde, Mai splitting the skull of a zombie with a downward jumping slice and Saeko decapitated a zombie with her sword. Within minutes, the two swordswomen had sliced apart the horde, save for a couple which Takashi bludgeoned with his shotgun butt. Sayuri was impressed with how well Saeko handled her sword, she was every bit as good as Mai, and Takashi was clearly an experienced "zombie fighter" as well. The three of them made quick work of the undead horde, clearing a path back to the amphibiuous vehicle. A day later, Tayagi Mansion Saeko and Takashi walked into foyer of the Takagi mansion, being almost immediately greeted by Rei and Saya. The two girls both expressed concern for their comrades, but Saya also berated them for their recklessness. Seconds later, they noticed the two other girls. "Mai Kawasumi", Mai said, "and this is my friend Sayuri Kurata". "Rei Miyamoto", Rei responded, as "Saya Tayagi" introduced herself. "We found these two near a school", Takashi said. "Mai, she's really good with her sword, probably as good as me", Saeko said, choosing to leave out the details on how she found out just how skilled Mai was. "Anyway", Takashi interjected, "Where are Kouta and Shizuka-sensei?" "Shizuka-sensei is upstairs resting at the moment", Saya said, "and Kouta's out back playing around with his guns." "Sayuri-san", Takashi said, "There's someone I'd like you to meet". Sayuri look surprised, but followed him out towards the back nonetheless. "Anyway", Takashi asked as they walked, "I know this might be a touchy subject, but why..." "Why does Sayuri refer to herself in third person?", Sayuri asked, "It's OK, Sayuri doesn't mind you asking... It's just, Sayuri lost her little brother... when she was only a child. It really effected Sayuri... from then on, she felt like she was and outside observer, watching herself." "I'm sorry...", Takashi said "Don't worry, it's OK", Sayuri repeated, but Takashi dropped the subject until they reached a garage-turned armory in the backyard, where Kouta was busy cleaning his AR-10T marksman rifle. "Kouta", Takashi said. Kouta looked up the workbench at Takashi. "Oh, hi Takashi", he said, "I'm assuming Saeko's in the house". "Yeah", Takashi replied. "I was sure you two would make it back OK. Saya and Rei were worried sick, though", Kouta replied, before continuing, "Who's the other girl?". "This is Sayuri Kurata", Takashi said, "Met her and one of her friends near a school." "Kouta Hirano", Kouta said as he shook Sayuri's hand. The second he let go, he said noticed the weapon sticking out of her back pocket." "That's a Glock, Austrian handgun made mostly of high-impact plastics, there are a number of different versions. Mind if I take a look at it?" Sayuri looked at Kouta, not sure what to make of him. "He's a bit... OK more than a bit of gun otaku", Takashi said, "He's actually a pretty nice guy.. not to mention he's the best shot I've ever seen. I figure if it weren't for him and Saeko, we'd all be dead." Kouta swelled with pride at Takashi's pronouncement, but quickly turned his attention to the weapon Sayuri had just handed her. "A Glock 19 to be precise", Kouta said examining the pistol, "It's a smaller version of Glock 17, firing the same 9mm caliber rounds as the 17. This one has a 15 round magazine, but other magazine sizes are avai....". "Kouta", Takashi interrupted him, "I was wondering if you could teach Sayuri to shoot it". "Sayuri is not a very good shot, it took her a whole clip to kill three zombies, and she has only one clip left." Most people would notice Sayuri's odd use of third person, but Kouta was not most people. Instead, he responded to her sentence by saying, "Technically, its a magazine, not a clip- a magazine is a container that stores ammunition in a firearm, which may or may not be detachable, while a clip is simply a device to hold several rounds of ammunition together, typically for insertion into and non-detachable mag...". Kouta ended his when Sayuri gave him a look like she'd never seen anything like him. "Oh, sorry about that, I get carried away sometimes", Kouta said, "But your in luck, the guards of the place have set up a little firing range of on the east side of the grounds, and Tayagi-san has allowed me to use it for target practice. They're saving most of the ammo for actual combat use, they have some set aside for target practice, Kouta said as Kouta grabbed several magazines for a Glock and walked over to he firing range with Sayuri and Takashi. The range consisted of a backstop crudely created using a bulldozer and several improvised targets- plywood cut outs and a few aluminum cans on stacks of bricks. Kouta set Sayuri up on the firing line and began instructing her on proper firing stance. "Keep your legs apart and and your arm straight. Focus on the front sight", Kouta said as he corrected Sayuri's posture. "Like this?", Sayuri asked. "Just like that, now squeeze the trigger slowly, don't pull it to fast, try to fire as you exhale." Sayuri squeezed the trigger, and blow a soda can off the top of a stack of bricks, looking rather pleased with herself. "I'll leave her to you", Takashi said. "She'll be a an crack shot in a few days", Kouta said. Takashi figured Kouta was exaggerating a bit, but with proper technique, Sayuri was doing better- she shot another can as Takashi left. Between the gunshots, Takashi heard them talking. Looks like Kouta had finally gotten around to asking Sayuri about her speaking in third person. WINNER: Saeko Busujima Experts Opinion TBW Authors Notes I had both warriors survive this match as the idea of both of them fighting zombies was too good to pass up. While I came up with that, I also thought of the side story of Kouta teaching Sayuri how to shoot. (Sayuri never engages in combat in the Kanon anime and is actually quite clumsy, so I thought this would be some interesting bit of character development). More to be added to notes. Category:Blog posts